Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
started out with Aglianico in 2007), and Terra
d'Oro. Caparone made in 1992 what is, to the
best of my knowledge, the fi rst Aglianico wine
born on American soil, but there are some
other places in the United States making good
Aglianico wines that will surprise you: Witch
Creek, which uses Mexican fruit but makes the
wine in California, and Mandola from Duch-
man Family Winery in Texas (a very light-bod-
ied, almost pinot noir-like aglianico made from
grapes grown in the Reddy Vineyard in the
Texas high plains). I have tried promising ver-
sions made in New Mexico too, by Bellanzi and
Luna Rossa winery; to date, the latter's barrel
sample is the single best wine I have ever tried
from New Mexico.
attention. And yet this variety has always been
cultivated in Campania: it represents a striking
estimated 90 percent of all red grapes grown in
the Val Calore, in the southern province of
Salerno. First mentioned by Acerbi in 1825, and
long thought to be a subvariety of Aglianico, at
times it was called Aglianico Femmina or Agli-
anichello (a name that should be reserved for
another grape, a biotype of Aglianico). Sem-
mola documented an Aglianicone near Naples
in 1848, as did Froio (1878) and Carusi (1879);
reading carefully and comparing the descrip-
tions given by these last two researchers shows
clearly that there are two Aglianicone subvarie-
ties, one near Benevento (oval, reddish berries)
and another found near Avellino, Caserta, and
Salerno (round, dark-blue berries). These mor-
phologic differences explain why in the Avel-
lino and Salerno areas Aglianicone used to be
called Aglianico Bastardo, while in the province
of Caserta it was thought to be a different vari-
ety, and referred to as Aglianico di Caiazzo.
Things didn't get any easier when, following
Monaco and Manzo's study documenting Agli-
anicone's relationship to Aglianico (2001), Calò
and Costacurta found Aglianicone identical to
Ciliegiolo and not related to Aglianico at all
(Calò, Costacurta, Carraro, and Crespan 2004).
The fun never stops when identifying Italian
native grapes.
The Aglianicone / Ciliegiolo fi asco is but
one of many well-known, headache-inducing,
not-so scientifi c capers, among them the Cali-
fornian Mondeuse Noire / Refosco and the
Australian Savagnin / Albariño misidentifi ca-
tions. As in those other instances, the errone-
ous conclusions were arrived at via genetic
testing performed on incorrectly identifi ed
grapevines (in this case, likely an atypical-
looking Ciliegiolo that had been believed to be
Aglianicone). Clearly, if vineyards are sam-
pled poorly and DNA profi les are performed
on the wrong grapevines, then wrong results
are predictable. These two varieties
do
look
alike—though their wines couldn't be more
different—and local producers have told me
that in the past, careless nurseries sometimes
wines to try:
For Taurasi, try: Antonio Cag-
giano*** (Macchia dei Goti), Mastroberar-
dino*** (Radici Riserva; they also make a rare
but ultra-delicious air-dried, sweet aglianico
called Anthares), Quintodecimo***, Salvatore
Molettieri*** (Vigna Cinque Querce Riserva),
Contrade di Taurasi** (Riserva), Donnachi-
ara* *, Di Pr isco* *, Per illo* *, Ponte* *, Luigi
Tecce** (Poliphemo), Terredora** (Fatica Con-
tadina), and Urciolo**. For Taburno, try: Can-
tina del Taburno*** (Bue Apis, from one-hun-
dred-year-old vines), Cantine Tora** (Riserva),
and La Rivolta**. For the Pestum IGT, try
D'Orta-De Conciliis*** (Zero, humorously
refers to it on the label as a “supercampan”).
For Vulture, try: Cantine del Notaio*** (La
Firma and Il Sigillo), Elena Fucci***, Paternos-
ter*** (Rotondo and Don Anselmo),
Basilisco**, Cantina di Venosa** (Carato Venu-
sio), Eubea** (Roinos), and Macarico**. For
Puglia, try: Tormaresca** (Tordilupo) and Ri-
vera* (Cappellaccio).
Aglianicone
where it's found:
Campania, Basilicata.
na -
tional registry code number:
3.
color:
red.
With Aglianico always hovering in the vicin-
ity, poor Aglianicone has always had to fi ght for
